Random questions about my game

[AndyBazooka]

nice! I didnt know that I also could use an Active object as the black-screen. thanks, that takes care of #1. This is going to be for PC, so no worries.

for #2, is it in any way possible to make the lightsource-actives ignore the "Layer Object" which organizes everything in Y-order?
so that instead of making the car-shadow object invisible (like shown in my previous example-picture), it just moves behind the player-light, but still stays in front of the light coming from the fire behind the car?

Ive tried making certain objects show in front of other objects when using the Layer Object, even though those objects were lower down on the Y-axis. It seems as these events are ignored because of the Layer Object.

EDIT: holy crap, i got #2 working the way i wanted it to now. It seems like bringing the player-light in front of or behind the car-shadow depending on the player's Y-position to the car works, without effecting the surrounding lights. this is great.
Maybe a bug that they've fixed with the latest updates of MMF2, i dunno, but last time i tried this was last year, and the result was not the same.

#1 and #2 are now partially solved

Lighting solved.jpg

[AndyBazooka]

I've done some experimenting with #2.
I.e. the part where the lightsources move in front of and behind different objects, depending on where they are on the Y-axis related to the other objects.

I decided to group together all lightsources into "Group.Glow". I also decided to group together the shadows covering the cars into "Group.Clouds" so i wont have to create an event for every single object (there's going to be alot of different ones later on).

I created a shadow for the bottom taxi car (as seen in the picture). Then i cloned that shadow into another object (to put on top of the police car), but while still having it grouped together under "Group.Clouds".

This is what i've done and how it looks now: IMAGE

The shadow above the police car on top in the picture reacts in the exact same way as the shadow on the taxi on the bottom of the image does.
When lightsources lies above (-Y) the taxi-shadow car, then they also stay behind the police-car shadow. Why?

You can see how ive set up the events for this in the link posted above.

[Konidias]

Why are you manually Y sorting stuff when you can just sort Y through everything with the Layer object?

[AndyBazooka]

I am sorting everthing through the layer object. But it seems as it doesnt affect this new layer i have created for the lighting/shadow effects. I dont know why.

Does the layer object itself need to be on the same layer that its sorting? or is it affecting all the layers?

EDIT: Problem solved. I never knew that you had to have the layer object on that specific layer you want to sort for it to work. I originally thought it sorted all the layers.
I now have two layer objects in two different layers, sorting the Y-axis.

[AndyBazooka]

What is the randomize formula for creating an object at a random X-position on the screen between pixels 0 to 1368?

Every 1 sec
+ Create "Active" at position ---------- (random between 0-1368)

[Danny]

Every 1 sec
+ Create "Active" at position ---------- (random between 0-1368)
+ Set X Position to Random(1369)

[AndyBazooka]

Thanks Danny, that worked.

Next Q: When a bullet collides with an object, sparks fly out in different directions. I've now also added light-effects to those sparks (the lighteffect is a separate object). I want the lighteffect to always be in the same position as the spark.

The event looks like this:
Always
+Set "Lighteffect" position to "Spark"

Bullet collides with object
+Create "Spark"
+Create "Spark"
+Create "Spark"
+Create "Lighteffect"
+Create "Lighteffect"
+Create "Lighteffect"


The problem is that the program doesnt give each "Spark" its own "Lighteffect". Its just random every time. Some sparks are left without the lighteffect, while others have up to 2 or 3 lighteffects stacked on the spark.
Does it have anything to do with the order the event is executed maybe?

How do i even this out so that each lighteffect goes to one spark?

[Danny]

Kinda, rather than explaining it I have drawn you up a quick example.

If you create two objects in the same event, MMF2 will auto-pair those objects throughout it's lifetime.
I've offset the yellow (lighteffect) so you can visually see them all paired.

Hit spacebar rapidly to see how they all stick with their "parent".
Hope it helps.

[AndyBazooka]

aah, so i have to create the lighteffects FROM the SPARKS, right after they are created. instead of creating lighteffects from the bullet simoutaniously as the spark.

thanks for the example file. that helped


so if the parent spark dies. does the paired lighteffect die too? (destroyed) or do i have to create a separate event for this

[AndyBazooka]

Is there some way to make specific objects have soundeffects linked to them? So that the further you walk away from that object, the more faded the sound gets?

I want to be able to throw a molotov, let it explode and start a fire. But when i walk away from the fire the sound volume of the fire needs to go down, the further away i get. And if i turn around and walk towards the fire again, the sound gets louder.

I was thinking of connecting the sound-volume of the fire-effect to the position-value of the player. But it has to be able to tell the distance between the player and the fire. How do i do this? Is there a better way to solve this?